Tag Archives: Christianity

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Sound the Trumpet

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When Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem, after getting permission from the King of Persia, Artaxerxes, he faced opposition. There were those who didn’t want the wall to that beautiful city repaired.

The people “had a heart and mind to work,” they all worked together, from officials, to perfumers, gold smiths to their daughters, priest and merchants. We all know that many people make quick work. They all worked together in family units to repair what the enemy had destroyed years ago.

Word got back to Nehemiah that their enemies planned on attacking while they worked. So he ordered the workers to work with their swords strapped to their backs. They worked with a weapon in one hand and a tool in the other. Notice- he never told them to stop working. Too many times when we are under attack, we drop everything “to do battle.” We stay home from Church, we don’t show up for the outreach we promised to help with, we stop helping our neighbors and say we are fighting the enemy. God says, do both.

Nehemiah also realized that there were gaps in the wall between families. They were separated by some distance. So he tells them, “Whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

They were to “blow a trumpet” when help was needed and the others were to rally to their aide. But how many of us are too proud, too self-righteous, to even admit we need help. We think that us being in a battle somehow constitutes spiritual weakness or a lack of faith. The priests were working on that wall; the spiritual leaders were in the battle right along with the rest of them. If you think your Pastor doesn’t face opposition, invite him or her over for dinner one night and ask them about it. We all battle. It is never a lack of faith to ask for help. We are called to bear one another’s burdens. When we do “God fights for us!”

Are you facing a temptation that is threatening to overtake you?
Blow the trumpet!
Are you fighting a physical battle that has you worn down?
Blow the trumpet!
Have you made a mess of your life and feel unworthy of help?
Blow the trumpet!
Sound the alarm-help will come and God will fight for you!

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Because He Loves Me

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Psalm 91:1-16
“He who [a]dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. [Then] He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge; His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror of the night, nor of the arrow (the evil plots and slanders of the wicked) that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only a spectator shall you be [yourself inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High] as you witness the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent. For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service]. They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot. Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness—trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never]. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.”

There are great benefits for loving God. Not just recognizing that He is, not just believing He took away your sins, but LOVING Him.

In verse 14 God promises to do all of these things, to rescue us, and protect us, because of our love for Him. Do you want long life? Love Him. Do you want Him to answer when you call? Love Him.

There are many people who say, “God has never done anything for me.” They have spouted out a few requests, maybe even begged and wept, tried to bargain or broker a deal. But do they love Him? Or are they just going thru ‘drive thru’ and placing an order on a fast food deity they expect a quick fix from? They don’t know Him, They don’t have “personal knowledge of My mercy, love and kindness.” He has done everything for them. He has made a way were there was no way, reconciled them back to Himself by shedding His own blood. He has loved them, even in their sin, and misunderstanding of who He is. All they have to do is accept His love and love him back and He is so easy to love.

I love Him, because He loves me.

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How Does God See You?

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How does God see you?
First we have to answer a few more questions.
Are you His?
Or do you still belong to the kingdom of darkness?

There is only two kingdoms. God’s Kingdom and Satan’s kingdom (the world’s).
So if you aren’t His, He sees you as the prodigal son. The one He loves with all His heart and He longs for you to come home to Him. He’s not mad at you. He doesn’t hate you. You don’t disgust Him, no matter what anyone else may say. He loves you. But, until you give yourself to Him, you are not His child. He won’t forcibly take you into His family. In fact, He has no legal right to treat you like a son. Like the prodigal son of the Bible, the choice is yours.

Now, if you have surrendered your heart to Him, He sees you as His very own child. Born of heaven, sitting there with Jesus. God sees you as sinless, righteous and holy. Just like Jesus. How can that be? Because Jesus took your place. He paid the price you couldn’t pay. Once and for all. The Father sees you as His “beloved”, “the apple of His eye.” He sees you as an “heir and a joint heir with Christ.” The Father sees you as the “Bride of Christ.” He chose you to marry His Son. He doesn’t remember who you were before He adopted you into His family. He chose to throw your sins into the sea of forgetfulness. The accuser can’t accuse you anymore, not to God anyway. “But I still make mistakes, I sin,” you say. Of course, we aren’t perfected yet. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Repent and move on. Repentance simply put, is changing your thoughts, and turning to God. Build a strong relationship with God and you will find those mistakes come fewer and farther between. Find out who He is, and how He sees you.

Now, the important question is:
“How do I see myself?”

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God’s Unconditional Love

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At the age of 6, I was invited to an after school children’s outreach at a friend’s. It was there that this beautiful Latino woman, via flannel board, showed me my black heart, and God’s love for me, and how His love could clean my heart. I was a child that craved love more than anything else. I wanted to be “special” to someone. His love drew me that very day, and I accepted Him into my heart, and my life has been set on a coarse for Heaven every since. There were years of backsliding, and living for the world, and my flesh, but always His love would draw me home.
At the age of 18, in one of my darkest times, Jesus came and visited me in my sleep. We walked on the banks of the Jordan, talking for hours, and He saved me from thoughts of suicide that I had been harboring. I’d like to say my life changed immediately the next day…but it took two more years to turn things around. I rededicated my life while pregnant with my daughter. After we almost lost her to a miscarriage, we returned to the only source of life, our Father God. We have lived for Him these past 27 years, not always perfectly, rarely in fact. But His love continues to strengthen, and rescue me! God’s love is amazing.
He has many things in store for us, but all are conditional, except one. His blessings, healings and abundance are all conditional on our beliefs and on us receiving them. His salvation is conditional on our admittance of our sin, and our need for Him. Forgiveness, on our repentance, our call, on our willingness to be used. The list goes on. He has so much He wants to do for us and to give us, but all depend on something from us. Then there is His LOVE. We can’t earn it. He loved us before we knew Him, before we ever said “I do” to Him. We can’t lose it, or every time we got angry with Him, questioned or doubted Him, He would have forsaken us.
God loves people, good people, bad people, sinners and saints alike. Jesus knew who would betray Him, yet He called Judas and loved him, and treated him like every other disciple. God’s love was so great; He sacrificed Himself to redeem us from the earth cursed system. Rom 8:37-39 ” No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below — there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Come to His love today; let it keep you in this evil day. Let it give you hope. Take strength from His unfailing love.

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Calling

Do you hear the Bridegroom calling for His bride?
The Father is calling all is prepared, the table is set.
The Holy Spirit is calling, the wedding garments are ready.
Can you hear the bride calling?

Are you ready?
Are you washed in the blood?
Is your lamp full of oil?
Are your garments without spot or wrinkle?

“And the Spirit and the Bride say, come.
And let them that heareth say, come.
And let them that athirst come.
And whosoever will, let them take the water of life freely.”
Revelation 22:17

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God’s Comfort

(Written previously)
Can I be honest? We all have our moments, those days when we wonder why we even got out of bed. When all the news seem bad, at worst, and less than what we hoped for, at best. What do we do with those moments? Usually I have a good cry (I said I was being honest). My day was like that today. Not the whole day, but enough to get the tears flowing. Then when I got home and walked into my kitchen, there was a big piece of paper on my fridge that said:
” But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises Hebrew 6:9-12.”
A message right from the Comforter! Sure, I am the one who printed it off and stuck it on my fridge, but I had originally printed it off for a friend who is facing a challenge this year, but decided “what the heck” and printed an extra copy for myself. God knew I would need it today.
Then my Spurgeon Devotional said, “”Trust in Him at all times.”Psalm 62:8 Faith is as much the rule of temporal as of spiritual life; we ought to have faith in God for our earthly affairs as well as for our heavenly business. It is only as we learn to trust in God for the supply of all our daily need that we shall live above the world. We are not to be idle, that would show we did not trust in God, who worketh hitherto, but in the devil, who is the father of idleness. We are not to be imprudent or rash; that were to trust chance, and not the living God, who is a God of economy and order. Acting in all prudence and uprightness, we are to rely simply and entirely upon the Lord at all times. Let me commend to you a life of trust in God in temporal things. Trusting in God, you will not be compelled to mourn because you have used sinful means to grow rich. Serve God with integrity, and if you achieve no success, at least no sin will lie upon your conscience. Trusting God, you will not be guilty of self-contradiction. He who trusts in craft, sails this way to-day, and that way the next, like a vessel tossed about by the fickle wind; but he that trusteth in the Lord is like a vessel propelled by steam, she cuts through the waves, defies the wind, and makes one bright silvery straightforward track to her destined haven. Be you a man with living principles within; never bow to the varying customs of worldly wisdom. Walk in your path of integrity with steadfast steps, and show that you are invincibly strong in the strength which confidence in God alone can confer. Thus you will be delivered from carking care, you will not be troubled with evil tidings, your heart will be fixed, trusting in the Lord. How pleasant to float along the stream of providence! There is no more blessed way of living than a life of dependence upon a covenant-keeping God. We have no care, for He careth for us; we have no troubles, because we cast our burdens upon the Lord.”
We can’t change some things. Period. But we can change how we react, and how we see things. I’ve had my cry, a short one this time, now I am choosing to see things through the eyes of my loving Father. I choose to accept the comfort of the Holy Spirit, who does His job well. I choose to “rely simply and entirely upon the Lord at all times”, especially those moments that are hard. Amen

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My Heart

Some of us are afraid to give our hearts to God, or at least our “whole heart.” We have this silly notion that our heart has compartments or pieces like a jig saw puzzle. Then we think “if I give my whole heart to God, what will I have left for my family?” or worse yet, “If I give my love away, and don’t get any back, then those compartments will be empty, and I’ll run out of love!” We picture our hearts like a puzzle with missing pieces, just giving parts of it here and there and never getting them back. Or perhaps we have had our hearts broken and feel like it has been shattered, and the broken shards are scattered to the wind. God showed me a wonderful picture today of my heart and the truth about my heart!
God said, “Give me your whole heart, and I will tear down all walls and dividers. No longer will your heart have compartments, it will be one big open vessel. Then I will pour in My Love! I will fill the vessel with MY LOVE. Then when you start loving others, not expecting anything in return, it stops being a vessel and becomes a SPRING! A spring that never runs dry! Then your love for others will be from this source and it will be more pure and strong than what you have now!”
If your heart has been broken, HE can put it back together, or even better, create a brand new heart for you. Accept HIS LOVE and HE will make your heart a Spring of Living Water. Why does God want our hearts? God said in Romans 2 “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” and in 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, and his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” When we accept God’s love and give it to others, we show the goodness of God! When we give Him our whole heart, holding nothing back, we accept more readily everything He has for us. He blesses our socks off, and then we can bless others! When we can love, whether they ever love us back, it shows God’s goodness! Give God your heart! HE LOVES YOU! He wants nothing less, is not satisfied with only part of us, He wants all of your heart.