Monday, January 26, 2015

Why do we even pray?

Why do we pray, when we do not want to change our ways, unless we; who are called by His name intend to reform we might as well not even pray for revival. Unless we have the insight and faith to amend our whole way of life we waste our time on fruitless prayer, as we bring our useless sacrifices to God saying, look Lord what we bring to you revive us!

We cry for but then we live in partial disobedience in a moral climate of acceptability of Hollywood morals : Oh church wake up!

See what God has said to prophets of old ,the same word He spoke to them He speaks to us today. God's wrath will come, He waited 400 years after He decimated Israel to send Jesus, we have received the word of truth, but ignore Him like they did.

Isaiah 1:2-7, 9-20 HCSB

Listen, heavens, and pay attention, earth, for the Lord has spoken: “I have raised children  and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s feeding trough, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.” Oh sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, brood of evildoers, depraved children! They have abandoned  the Lord ; they have despised  the Holy One of Israel; they have turned their backs on Him. Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep on rebelling? The whole head is hurt, and the whole heart is sick. From the sole of the foot even to the head, no spot is uninjured  — wounds, welts, and festering sores not cleansed, bandaged, or soothed with oil. Your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire; foreigners devour your fields before your very eyes — a desolation demolished by foreigners. If the Lord of Hosts had not left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom, we would resemble Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord , you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “What are all your sacrifices to Me? ” asks the Lord . “I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I have no desire for the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats. When you come to appear before Me, who requires this from you — this trampling of My courts? Stop bringing useless offerings. Your incense is detestable to Me. New Moons and Sabbaths, and the calling of solemn assemblies  — I cannot stand iniquity  with a festival. I hate your New Moons and prescribed festivals. They have become a burden to Me; I am tired of putting up with them. When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look at you; even if you offer countless prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. “Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil. Learn to do what is good. Seek justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause. “Come, let us discuss this,” says the Lord . “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Confidence in Christ alone

Have you ever been so self confident that you cross the line into arrogance? I have, and it is a line I try to avoid always, I do not like myself when I cross it.

Today in the world we live in there are billions of people put on this planet, not one of us chose where we would be born, not one of us chose our skin color, not one of us chose our families, or circumstances we grew up in.

Our lives were and are governed by the hands of God, there is not a blink of an eye that He is not aware of.

When we humble ourselves and come to this realization we understand our mortality, our fallibility and our need for God's divine sovereignty in and over our lives.

Knowing that we can screw up and find grace in Jesus Christ, because God the Father sent Him to us because of our weakness in our flesh, knowing we could no better save ourselves from sin and death than we could choose where and who we are born to.

We are weak and needy people, and finding our hope in Christ’s grace is what marks a mature relationship. The most dangerous aspect of our relationships is not our weakness, but our delusions of strength in ourselves.

Our strength, our hope, our confidence, our peace, our prosperity our lives, our future's, our past, our salvation belongs to the Lord. We are and always will be in His hands. Let your weakness become strength in Christ alone.

Psalms 46:1-11 HCSB

God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble. Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with its turmoil. Selah There is a river — its streams delight the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High. God is within her; she will not be toppled. God will help her when the morning dawns. Nations rage, kingdoms topple; the earth melts when He lifts His voice. The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah Come, see the works of the Lord , who brings devastation on the earth. He makes wars cease throughout the earth. He shatters bows and cuts spears to pieces; He burns up the chariots.   “Stop your fighting — and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” Yahweh of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah

Psalms 121:1-8 HCSB

I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord , the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep. The Lord protects you; the Lord is a shelter right by your side.   The sun will not strike you by day or the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all harm; He will protect your life. The Lord will protect your coming and going both now and forever.

Psalms 146:1-10 HCSB

Hallelujah! My soul, praise the Lord . I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing to my God as long as I live. Do not trust in nobles, in man, who cannot save. When his breath  leaves him, he returns to the ground; on that day his plans die. Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. He remains faithful forever, executing justice for the exploited and giving food to the hungry. The Lord frees prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises up those who are oppressed.   The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord protects foreigners and helps the fatherless and the widow, but He frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever; Zion, your God reigns for all generations. Hallelujah!

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Living a life in the power of love

When we learn to live for our Lord Jesus from a stand point of love ;we will understand that our relationship with Him is not based on what we do, but how much Jesus loves us.

We get trapped in doing something to be loved many of us get caught here, when this happens our motives get skewed. And we focus on ourselves instead of Jesus.

God can never love you more than He did when He sent Jesus to live amongst us, and take our punishment for our sins,

Romans 5:6-8 HCSB

For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment,  Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves  His own love for us  in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

Do not let the enemy confuse you with noise, listen for the voice of God, He loves you, He always has loved you, and if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and call upon Him you shall be saved.

Start living today knowing you're already loved and cannot earn God's love you just need to accept it. Humble yourself and submit your life to Him.

1 Peter 5:6-11 HCSB

Humble  yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand  of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time,   casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you. Be serious!  Be alert!  Your adversary the Devil  is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him  and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world. Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory  in Christ Jesus, will personally  restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little.   The dominion  belongs to Him forever.  Amen.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

A thin line

There is a thin yellow line that separates us from life and death.

Have you ever thought about the dividing line on the road, the line between life and death? That death is so close to you and the one you just passed, an ill timed swerve, loss of control, or someone not paying attention they or you cross the yellow line and, bam it's over.

Life is like that we don't know what waits for us around the bend, there are many paths that we can take but there is only one path that leads to an abundant eternal life with God, that is through Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells there is a time to be born the time to die. And just like you did not choose your day to be born you will not choose the day you die.

We drive near that thin everyday, between us and eternity is nothing more than our next breath, we are all sinners but Christians have sought God forgiveness of sins through salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ.

If today your life crossed the line where would you spend eternity only those who put their faith in Jesus Christ will be with God in heaven.

Proverbs 14:8-12 HCSB

The sensible man’s wisdom is to consider his way, but the stupidity of fools deceives them. Fools mock at making restitution, but there is goodwill among the upright. The heart knows its own bitterness, and no outsider shares in its joy. The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will stand.   There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

John 3:16-18 HCSB

“For God loved  the world in this way:  He gave His One and Only  Son,  so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.    For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn  the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned,  because he has not believed in the name  of the One and Only Son  of God.

John 14:6-7, 10 HCSB

Jesus told him, “I am  the way,  the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. “If you know Me, you will also know    My Father.  From now on you do know Him  and have seen Him.” Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?  The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own.  The Father who lives in Me does His works.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

The worst of times or the best of times

When we complain about the things around us it is poison to our souls, we should be grateful and thankful for what we have and whose we are, we need to truly understand God is over every thing and every body.

We are not the first to experience rough, difficult or trying times or trials although we can pray we are the last.

You see God has us each where He put us at this time for His purpose and calling.

Art Buchwald said this “Whether these are the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got.”

What a profound proverb, the apostle Paul gave us institutions on how to live in dark and difficult times, this year let us live as God has called.

Ephesians 5:1-33 HCSB
Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. Coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks.

For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things.

Therefore, do not become their partners. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light — for the fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth — discerning what is pleasing to the Lord.

Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret. Everything exposed by the light is made clear, for what makes everything clear is light.

Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and the Messiah will shine on you. Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk — not as unwise people but as wise — making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.

Wives,  submit to your own husbands  as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife  as Christ is the head  of the church. He is the Savior of the body.

   Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives,  just as Christ loved  the church and gave Himself  for her to make her holy, cleansing  her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.  

In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of His body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 

This mystery  is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Now is the time

Where has time gone, the New Year is upon us 2015 is here. Time seems to be a friend to no one nowadays, our schedules seems to get more hectic; life seems to be going by so quickly that we miss what God is doing around us, in us and through us.

As 2014 comes to an end reflect back over the days and see where the hands of God have been in your life, your family’s life, in our church and in our community. Has God given you peace, strength, hope, wisdom, grace, mercy this past year?

Yes of course He has, and He will in the New Year, and the Years to come.

The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastics 3 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; …a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;… A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;…A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away; A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak; A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace. ..He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor--it is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him.

Let us commit our ways to God this year, rejoice in who He is, let Him work in our lives and in the lives of those around us, and in all we do, do as unto the Lord.

There is a time for everything the scriptures tell us, it is God’s timing not ours, let us trust Him to see us through whatever comes our way.

2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;  old things have passed away, and look,  new things  have come.