What scars do you have?

We all have scars, some inside some out. Scars serve as a reminder a lesson learned, a lesson to be shared.

I grew up in Church , had great head knowledge of God, and great heart knowledge of those who called themselves Christians. A lot of them that I seen go to the churches on Sundays are the same ones I hung out with on the weeknights in the local bars.

I said to myself this is not what a child of God should be someone who plays a part, but I to played the part as a child of God I did not know Him as my Lord and Savior.  I asked Christ into my heart a thousand times but I never meant it,

I led worship in our church, could quote scriptures ,I knew the Bible backwards and forwards but none of it meant anything to me.

I lived life on my terms.

Mother's Day 1984 I walked into church after binge dinking all night. I would not set foot in Church until almost ten years later. I only came back to church because it profited me , God still had work to do in my life. And for the next five years of my life I fought God every time harder than before, knowing what was right and wrong. I wasn't willing to submit to Him yet.

By the world's standards I had everything you could ask for I had a job as a general sales manager for a car lot making $15,000 plus a month , money was my god and I served her well,most people didn't like me, including me.

But October 22nd 1998 it all changed when asked in a meeting at church if I left here tonight and went into eternity where would I go? and I heard God say to me that I would go to hell. I stopped in my tracks and could go no further. That night I surrendered my life to God He took my anger , He took my pride, He took my greed, He took my smoking, He took my drinking, He took my vocabulary, He took me and buried me.. I offered Him a broken vessel, He gave me Grace.

The next day I walked in and quit my job I was looked at like I was crazy but I knew I could no longer do my job in good conscience, I no onger wrestled with the Lord but started walking with Him.

Change in me was easy to see , I told God when I walked away that either I was all in or all out. I was all out to long. Now I am all in.

This is just a glimpse of what God has done for me and in me and is still doing. I bear the scars of choices I made, ones that remind me daily of the Grace I have received.

I can't boast of anything except who Jesus Christ is and what He has done and is doing in me. If it were not for His grace I would be dead or in prison for the things I have done, I can think of 10 times these 2 things should have happened, but God spared me.

God has spared each of us for such a time as this to reach the unreachable to love the unlovable for we to were once one of them.

Brothers, if someone is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual should restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so you also won’t be tempted.  Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each person should examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in respect to someone else. For each person will have to carry his own load. Galatians 6:1-5

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world. For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.  May peace come to all those who follow this standard, and mercy to the Israel of God! From now on, let no one cause me trouble, because I bear on my body scars for the cause of Jesus.  Brothers, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Galatians 6:14-18

God's grace is greater

I have received God's grace more than any man I know. God in His loving kindness has poured upon my life His grace so thick that it consumes me and compels me to share Him every time He gives me the opportunity.

I grew up doing church , but I truly did not receive salvation until I was 33. I was angry with God because of who I thought He should be, and He was not.

I used the 10 commandments as stepping stones in my anger and broke them all to defy God and make Him hate me.

But God in His grace said I love you, I love you so much that I died for you to become the sacrifice for your sins.

God poured His love and grace on me and broke me.

I don't know your story but God does, this I know His grace and love is greater than your sins.

It is no coincidence that the last words God has John record in the Bible are these.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. Revelation 22:21

If you have not received God's grace yet, today is the day you need to ask Him to show you His love, mercy and grace.

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, O Lord , to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord , that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Psalms 86:3-13

Holiness it's what I long for.

Israel was in captivity in Egypt for over 400 years when God set them free with Moses leading the way.

They had adapted Egypt's ways and rituals into their own, God led them out but had to teach them His holiness.

Like Israel when God set's us free from captivity we need to unlearn our old ways and learn His holiness, this means we must let Him lead us and work in our lives. We must learn to seek Him. We must submit to His ways for they are perfect.

Do not harden your hearts to what God is doing in your life, He is teaching you and I holiness.

Read the stories of the wilderness journey today see how God moved and directed Israel, then reflect over your journey and see how God is directing your life and teaching you His holiness. And thank Him for rescuing you from captivity.

Consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God. Keep My statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who sets you apart. “You are to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.  And I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh your God who set you apart from the peoples.

Leviticus 20:7-8, 22, 24

The poison of knowledge's power

America we have a problem,a God problem we have fallen for the same lie the devil used upon Eve that surely we would not die once we ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

If we as believers have an accurate picture of God then that will lead to a life of holiness : as a matter of fact that  is vital to everything. AW Tozer said this all the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with that overwhelming problem of God: that He is: what He is like: and what we as moral beings must do about Him".

We pursue knowledge believing that knowledge is power believing we will be like God because we know all things, we have been deceived ,need I remind you of the most knowledgeable and wisest of all cultures have been destroyed by their pursuit of knowledge and power, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome ,Europe, Germany, all have fallen to the wayside.

Each had more knowledge than the other, yet today they are but shadows of their former greatness.

We have knowledge today at our fingertips a click away you can know just about anything, but yet we are far from the truth we are far from God our creator we believe our selves to be gods.

Genesis 3:1-7 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Romans 1:21-30, 32 ESV

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.  For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.  And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.