Have you ever wanted to do something FOR God, because you love Him and wanted to please Him? I believe that we all want to to please the Lord by doing something that we think would give Him pleasure. Do we not owe Him our lives?
The Lord is so merciful and loves us so much that He finds pleasure in our desires to please Him in our sincere dedication to serve Him. But I believe His real desire is to have a more intimate relationship with us and to be available to Him, rather than just doing good things FOR Him on our own.
How could I really please God was a question I had to ask myself. I could see myself standing before the Lord one day trying to justify all the good things I did FOR God and He gently saying, "They all were good things, but you really don't know me. All I ever wanted was your fellowship and your availability for me to express myself through you." This thought DROVE me to my knees and I knew that I needed to seek the Lord for some answers. I went to the Scriptures and there I was totally set free and redirected into a closer fellowship with my Lord. I found my answer in Hebrews 11:6."For without FAITH it is IMPOSSIBLE to PLEASE God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."
For years,I thought that the only FAITH that PLEASED God was my faith in the gospel.. Wasn't that enough? But, I really didn't understand FAITH. I began to seek the Lord earnestly to understand FAITH. If faith pleases God, I wanted to grow in FAITH. Hebrews 11:1 is a great verse and explains FAITH, "Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot see" It is so easy to believe what we see but when we pray and don't see an answer, our faith can be deeply challenged. We can began to wonder, if God heard us or has forgotten us. Satan is great at shooting arrows into our minds to try and destroy our faith. He never gives up. But we can submit to God, resist the devil, and He has to flee.
Our faith is very precious to the Lord. Our Father delights in our faith in Him God is a person and wants us to trust Him. I like to think that the Bible is God GIVING HIS WORD TO US! It is like when someone says,"I give you my word: you can count on me." If being human, we give our word to one another, how much more can we TRUST GOD'S GIVING US HIS WORD?
When trials and tribulations come into our lives, we can be SURE that our God will never leave us or forsake us. He will be right in the middle to deliver us out to greener pastures. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us from them all", (psalm 34:19). Our God is a faithful God and He will never take His eye off of us. As we grow to know our Lord more and more, our fears will turn to love, our doubts to hope, and our unbelief to FAITH. The Lord will finish the good work He started and we will find great pleasure in our Lord and He is ours forever.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Born for such a Time as this
Have you thought of yourself as being born for such a time as this? If you have been raised with a lot of self-condemnation, inferiority and rejection you might think of yourself as a nobody. Someone whom God has overlooked. You might believe that you are a nothing in His sight. If you are struggling in your self (flesh) to overcome your weaknesses and be a better person, believe me, I have tried and it is futile. The self life is very strong and only the power of the cross will separate you from it.
The self life is our sin nature that we were born with and we sin because we are sinners. But the good news is that our Creator knew that Adam would sin and that we ALL would fall into his transgression. It is like putting a black sock into wash load of white sheets and the wash comes out gray.
You might be thinking, that is me, I am GRAY. But is that the truth? It is the truth, if you are STILL in your sin of Adam. But you don't have to stay there. There is the Good News. Jesus did not take the gray sheet and make it white! He literally tore it to pieces and created a brand new white sheet!
You are I are NEW wine skins. The Holy Spirit could never be poured into an old wine skin. Impossible. When we begin to REALIZE that we are new wine skins, that we are not JUST a sinner saved by grace, but a new creation, a creation THAT HAS NEVER BEEN BEFORE, the world grows strangely dim. We have been recreated for a greater purposes than this world will ever know, because "Greater is He in us then He who is in the world."(1 John 4:4). "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph: 2:10)
The Lord declares of us today, that we are His delight and beloved sons and daughters. He DOES NOT see our sin, but sees us through Christ colored glasses. The more we accept ourselves as Jesus accepts us, the more I believe that we will sin less and love one another more. If Jesus sees us in His blood, ought we not see our brothers and sisters the same? 2 Peter 4:8 says," Love covers a multitude of sin". By faith, The SINNER has died in Christ Jesus. We are NOW identified in Christ death, burial and resurrection. Sin no longer has dominion over us. St Paul understood this well when he said,"Now if I do, what I do not want, it is NO longer I who do it, but SIN that dwells within me." Romans 7:20. Sin may be ever present, but we don't have obey it.
The blood of Jesus continuously forgives us,washes us, and cleanses us day after day. The gift of repentance is a rich blessing when we fall and it is important to remember that God still LOVES us, when we do fail. He will pick us up and set us back on the road, because we are His children and we have been born for such a time as this to bring glory to God in our Nation and to draw all men unto Him.
The self life is our sin nature that we were born with and we sin because we are sinners. But the good news is that our Creator knew that Adam would sin and that we ALL would fall into his transgression. It is like putting a black sock into wash load of white sheets and the wash comes out gray.
You might be thinking, that is me, I am GRAY. But is that the truth? It is the truth, if you are STILL in your sin of Adam. But you don't have to stay there. There is the Good News. Jesus did not take the gray sheet and make it white! He literally tore it to pieces and created a brand new white sheet!
You are I are NEW wine skins. The Holy Spirit could never be poured into an old wine skin. Impossible. When we begin to REALIZE that we are new wine skins, that we are not JUST a sinner saved by grace, but a new creation, a creation THAT HAS NEVER BEEN BEFORE, the world grows strangely dim. We have been recreated for a greater purposes than this world will ever know, because "Greater is He in us then He who is in the world."(1 John 4:4). "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph: 2:10)
The Lord declares of us today, that we are His delight and beloved sons and daughters. He DOES NOT see our sin, but sees us through Christ colored glasses. The more we accept ourselves as Jesus accepts us, the more I believe that we will sin less and love one another more. If Jesus sees us in His blood, ought we not see our brothers and sisters the same? 2 Peter 4:8 says," Love covers a multitude of sin". By faith, The SINNER has died in Christ Jesus. We are NOW identified in Christ death, burial and resurrection. Sin no longer has dominion over us. St Paul understood this well when he said,"Now if I do, what I do not want, it is NO longer I who do it, but SIN that dwells within me." Romans 7:20. Sin may be ever present, but we don't have obey it.
The blood of Jesus continuously forgives us,washes us, and cleanses us day after day. The gift of repentance is a rich blessing when we fall and it is important to remember that God still LOVES us, when we do fail. He will pick us up and set us back on the road, because we are His children and we have been born for such a time as this to bring glory to God in our Nation and to draw all men unto Him.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
New Beginnings, According to God's Math
Recently I was reading an article on numbers in the bible. I found it very interesting and I thought you might find it fascinating also. God does nothing by accident nor has he created an accident. You and I are NOT accidents no matter what we think about ourselves or what others tell us. God has a purpose in all that He does and creates. But what about why He created mathematics?
God's mathematics is amazing. Take the number 8 for example. Often the number 8 stands for new beginnings which seems to be the case in the first place we find the number 8. It is with reference to Noah--there were 8 people on the ark and of course they were the seed stock of the new population. Another 8 reference
to new beginnings is found in Leviticus 8 when the first high priest was consecrated. Afterwards he was commanded to stay in the tabernacle for seven days and then go out on the 8th day to begin his priestly duties. The next time we see evidence of 8 being symbolic of a new beginnings is when Samuel anointed Jesse's 8th son and that was David.
Some say that the number 8 not only stands for new beginnings but also can symbolize divinity. When the name Jesus is assigned Greek numerical values, the total is 888. Considering that "Jesus" in Hebrew means salvation (new birth), we see both divinity and new beginning. It's interesting to me that the Transfiguration was 8 days after speaking to the disciples about the coming kingdom (Luke 9), and that God spoke to Abraham on 8 occasions, It was also 8 days after the resurrection that Jesus allowed Thomas to touch Him and this was probably about Thomas taking on new faith and starting a new empowered life.
Then we come to Romans Chapter 5:1-11. We find 8 new conditions that come to the believer as a result of the new birth. (Interesting to read) 2 Peter 1:4-8 also describes 8 promises to those who have become partakers of God's grace. Two more instances that are interesting are found in John 2 where the word "born" is used 8 times in the first 8 verses and finally in John 4 where the word "water" is used 8 times in verses 7-15.
Other 8's include the fact that the Israelites were encamped in 8 specific groups around the taberancle while they were out in the wilderness. There are 8 instances where people were raised from the dead mentioned in God's word. The feast of tabernacles is 8 days long. Elijah performed 8 miracles, (and after Elisha prayed for a double portion, he performed 16 miracles). There are 8 references to the Old Testament in Revelation chapter 1. There were 8 writers of the New Testament, and Jewish boys were commanded to be circumcised on the 8th day. I am sure that if an in-depth number study was done, the biblical number eight would become even more intriguing.
We all know that 666 is the number for man and that one day the Anti Christ will demand that number to be placed on our foreheads,
and we as believers are to reject it. God's math is fascinating, but only one number is really important, the number 3. Just think about that!!
I received this information from an article written by Les Feldick Ministries, "Through the Bible". He is a dear brother and a faithful bible teacher.
God's mathematics is amazing. Take the number 8 for example. Often the number 8 stands for new beginnings which seems to be the case in the first place we find the number 8. It is with reference to Noah--there were 8 people on the ark and of course they were the seed stock of the new population. Another 8 reference
to new beginnings is found in Leviticus 8 when the first high priest was consecrated. Afterwards he was commanded to stay in the tabernacle for seven days and then go out on the 8th day to begin his priestly duties. The next time we see evidence of 8 being symbolic of a new beginnings is when Samuel anointed Jesse's 8th son and that was David.
Some say that the number 8 not only stands for new beginnings but also can symbolize divinity. When the name Jesus is assigned Greek numerical values, the total is 888. Considering that "Jesus" in Hebrew means salvation (new birth), we see both divinity and new beginning. It's interesting to me that the Transfiguration was 8 days after speaking to the disciples about the coming kingdom (Luke 9), and that God spoke to Abraham on 8 occasions, It was also 8 days after the resurrection that Jesus allowed Thomas to touch Him and this was probably about Thomas taking on new faith and starting a new empowered life.
Then we come to Romans Chapter 5:1-11. We find 8 new conditions that come to the believer as a result of the new birth. (Interesting to read) 2 Peter 1:4-8 also describes 8 promises to those who have become partakers of God's grace. Two more instances that are interesting are found in John 2 where the word "born" is used 8 times in the first 8 verses and finally in John 4 where the word "water" is used 8 times in verses 7-15.
Other 8's include the fact that the Israelites were encamped in 8 specific groups around the taberancle while they were out in the wilderness. There are 8 instances where people were raised from the dead mentioned in God's word. The feast of tabernacles is 8 days long. Elijah performed 8 miracles, (and after Elisha prayed for a double portion, he performed 16 miracles). There are 8 references to the Old Testament in Revelation chapter 1. There were 8 writers of the New Testament, and Jewish boys were commanded to be circumcised on the 8th day. I am sure that if an in-depth number study was done, the biblical number eight would become even more intriguing.
We all know that 666 is the number for man and that one day the Anti Christ will demand that number to be placed on our foreheads,
and we as believers are to reject it. God's math is fascinating, but only one number is really important, the number 3. Just think about that!!
I received this information from an article written by Les Feldick Ministries, "Through the Bible". He is a dear brother and a faithful bible teacher.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
A Murmuration, a Divine Mystery
This is 2 minutes long. It is another mystery of Creator God, Elohim: No one knows why they do it.
Yet each Fall, thousands of starlings dance in the twilight above England and Scotland. The birds gather in shape-shifting flocks called murmurations, having migrated in the millions from Russia and Scandinavia to escape winter's frigid bite. Scientists aren't sure how they do it, either. The starlings' murmurations are manifestations of swarm intelligence, which in different contexts is practiced by schools of fish, swarms of bees and colonies of ants. As far as I am aware, even complex algorithmic models haven't yet explained the starlings 'aerobatics, which rely on the tiny bird's quicksilver reaction time of under 100 milliseconds to avoid aerial collisions-and-predators-in the giant flock.
Despite their tour de force in the dusky sky, starlings have declined significantly in the UK in recent years, perhaps because of a decline in suitable nesting sites. The birds still roost in several of Britain's rural pastures, however, settling down to sleep (and chatter) after their evening ballet.
Two young ladies were out on a late afternoon canoe ride and fortunately one of them remembered to bring her video camera. What they saw was a wonderful murmuration display, caught in the short video.
I couldn't help but think, "Lord, you created theses starlings to praise and dance before you to express your glory." ENJOY!!
http://vimeo.com/31158841
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